"This all comes to mind as I realize, with increasing sense of dread and alarm and a weird sense of fatalistic ennui, that if any of the dire prognostications for the world soon comes to pass, if the oil crisis strikes as violently as predicted and/or if the eviscerated U.S. economy spirals us into a new and violent Great Depression 2.0 and/or if BushCo does indeed succeed in bringing the wrath of an angry spiteful homophobic God down upon the swarming gay-lovin' tofu-sucking heathen masses, I might not be as well prepared as I'd like."
6 comments:
The guy's a touch depressed, isn't he? The way I see it, assuming even one of the Doomsday Scenarios plays out, there's good news and bad news.
The bad news is that millions will die, and their survival skills won't help much. It's just a basic fact that if our infrastructure collapses, it's impossible to support so many people.
The good news is that city dwellers won't really be in as much of a disadvantage as this guy thinks. Initially, times will be harder on the city folk than country, but city people retain two things that will serve them: they can learn new skills, and there are large numbers of specialists who can teach them. Sure, you may not know how to dig a well with a shovel and a lot of sweat, but someone at one of the drilling companies surely has a good idea, even if he's never done it himself.
Also, the notion that there are "city skills" and "country skills" and the two never meet is a bit overblown. Both skillsets are specializations of the same basic skills. The way you avoid antagonizing a street gang is remarkably similar to the way you avoid antagonizing a pack of wild animals.
In the long run, everybody will be in the same boat.
"The bad news is that millions will die, and their survival skills won't help much."
If a person knows how to grow and store their own food, collect their own water, create their own heat and do their own first aid, I'd say that they have a much greater probability of survival than someone who doesn't have a clue about that shit.
It's my opinion that the peak oil doomsday scenario definitely can (and I think WILL) take place -- much sooner than we anticipate. Most of us, however, are laying on our nice soft couches in air conditioned rooms dozing in front of our HDTV's (with full belly's; mmmm, that whopper was good!) -- quite oblivious to this impending disaster.
And we occasionally feel compelled to let out a little squeal like Howard Dean, just to remind ourselves that we're alive.
God, I hope that oil crash hits us soon.
The man speaks truth.
Obligatory Heinlein quote!
Those of us in deer country know that the cute little Bambis are just Lyme Disease vectors. So when the doxycycline factories go down, we'll all be really screwed.
If a person knows how to grow and store their own food, collect their own water, create their own heat and do their own first aid...
Everything else being equal, sure. Everything else isn't likely to be equal, though. The greatest number of deaths would likely come from disease and lack of suitable food & water.
Disease will be the ballbreaker. Unless factories are running somewhere, you're going to run out of needed medicine if you had it to begin with. Those in cities will have access to more of this kind of thing than those in the country -- on the other hand, disease will spread faster in cities, so it might balance out.
If you have a self-sufficient farm-thing going, then you'll have to worry about the starving mobs. Agriculture requires a certain amount of peace.
In any case, I wasn't arguing that there's no need to prepare -- disaster preparation is always wise. I'm just saying that on balance, I don't think the country dwellers will have it a whole lot easier than the city dwellers.
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